Titans' many weapons make it hard for opponents to prepare

Friday

Oct 28, 2011 at 12:57 AM

BOGART — As his team prepared for an important showdown with Elbert County, North Oconee junior Nick Colvin was trying to put himself in the shoes of an opposing coach.

“I was just thinking about that the other day, Elbert County’s defensive coach trying to prepare for us and all of our different formations,” Colvin said. “I’m curious to know what they are going to try and do.”

Colvin wasn’t being cocky or braggadocios. He was just talking about what the Titans’ previous eight opponents already know — they have a lot of offensive weapons.

North Oconee (8-0, 5-0 in Region 8-AA South) will bring those weapons to The Granite Bowl today in a battle of undefeated teams against No. 7-ranked Elbert County for the sub-region title. The winner will play at Banks County next week for the Region 8-AA title.

“We’ve talked about it for the last three weeks,” North Oconee coach Terry Tuley said. “We knew we had three games in a row that if we took care of business, we should win. It is easy then to start thinking about Elbert. We coach them one game at a time. If you start looking forward, they won’t be focused. It has been hard to not look.”

The Titans are averaging more than 45 points per game and have scored less than 30 points just once all season, a 28-20 win over Hart County.

They have put up those numbers with variety, spreading the ball around to a collection of players that are equally capable of finding the end zone.

“It is actually really exciting,” running back David Pinkerton said. “If one of us is having a bad game, we have other guys that can take it the distance. It is fun to be a part of that.”

Pinkerton leads the team in rushing this season with 741 yards and nine touchdowns. But right behind him is freshman phenom Kawon Bryant, who has rushed for 676 yards and 11 touchdowns and is averaging 10.9 yards per carry.

The Titans have also received significant rushing yardage from Colvin (424 yards, six touchdowns) and fullback Dalton Greene (192 yards, two touchdowns).

“I think all of us work well off of each other and complement each other’s game,” Pinkerton said. “If Nick is running, Kawon and me are blocking for him and it switches like that. We are working as a team and we are feeling pretty good about it.”

North Oconee also has an improved passing game behind senior quarterback Blake Gaubert. While he hasn’t been asked to take over games, he has still completed 64 of 111 pass attempts for 950 yards and 11 touchdowns.

“He’s proven that he is one of the better quarterbacks in this part of the state,” Tuley said. “He isn’t throwing it 30 or 40 times a game. Last week, he was 6 of 11. We are getting production from what we do.”

Gaubert’s favorite target has been Colvin, who is also the backup quarterback and is the Titans’ most versatile player.

On top of his rushing yardage, Colvin has caught 15 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns. He also has 253 yards and a touchdown on kickoff returns and 149 yards and a touchdown on punt returns.

Last year, Colvin played a minor role behind Lane Thompson — the Titans’ do-it-all player in 2010 — in Elbert County’s 6-0 win in Titan Stadium. This year, Colvin wants to be the player that changes the game.

“Last year, I didn’t play as big of a role and was just trying not to make a mistake,” he said. “This year, I want to make plays and be a deciding factor in the game.”

Then there are other players like receivers John Jarrard and Wes Brooks that provide North Oconee with another avenue for picking up yards.

“It is good to have that assorted number of people that you can dish it off,” Tuley said. “If you are trying to stop this team, you don’t have the one guy you can focus on.”

Elbert County (8-0, 5-0) has an offense that is almost the opposite of North Oconee’s, in that it relies heavily on just one player — running back Tyshon Dye. In last year’s game, Dye rushed for 97 yards and the game’s only touchdown to beat the Titans.

So far this year, Dye has rushed for 1,191 yards and 17 touchdowns. Last week, he rushed for 178 yards and four touchdowns against East Jackson.

Tuley acknowledges that Dye is the center of the Blue Devils’ offense, but he also thinks that their system is what makes Dye so dangerous.

“He’s a great back,” Tuley said. “The real key to it is that they run the Wing-T and to stop it, you can’t stop just one. You have to stop them all. … You have to play A-B-C football.”

Since beating Jefferson on Sept. 30, the likelihood of the battle of undefeated teams grew with each week. Many people, including players and coaches on each side of the game, consider this the Region 8-AA title game.

The Titans’ coaching staff preached taking the season one game at a time during the three weeks between Jefferson and Elbert County.

But at least for Colvin, the Blue Devils have been on his mind for almost a month now.

“Ever since the Jefferson game, I’ve been so hungry for a game like that,” Colvin said. “The weeks of practice kind of dragged and all of the coaches were saying thing about the next opponent. But you are really thinking about Elbert County.”

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